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LABOR MARKET SPOTLIGHT: ALLIANCE

July 27, 2017 - 3:54pm
Dave Moore

Few developers have the chance to build a project across 28 miles of rolling, unencumbered land. But that’s what H. Ross Perot Jr. and his company, Hillwood, did in the 1980s to handle a surge of air traffic and population to the Dallas Region.

Today, that development, called AllianceTexas, contains more than 1 million square feet of retail space, near the workplaces of 40,000 professionals, many of whom live in a blend of more than 10,000 townhomes, apartments, and single-family homes.

Scores of shipping containers pass through the Alliance Global Logistics Hub, which includes Fort Worth Alliance Airport and BNSF Railway’s Alliance Intermodal Facility. The Hillwood development and its surroundings are commonly referred to as Alliance.

Accordingly, a fifth of all employees in Alliance area work in transportation and warehousing. And roughly a third of all workers live less than 10 miles away from their jobs, while another third is 10 to 24 miles away, according to federal data.

The site has drawn financial services jobs, with Charles Schwab’s announcement of its 1,200-employee corporate campus on the sprawling Circle T Ranch property, including restaurants, retail, day care facilities, and a 200-room hotel. Completion is set for 2019.

Employers include the North American HQ of Galderma Laboratories LP and TD Ameritrade’s regional branch office. Other operations include BNSF Railway, AT&T, and LG Electronics USA.

In 1987, when the initial project was referred to as “North Fort Worth Airport,” H. Ross Perot Jr. spoke of the benefits of large-scale planning that Alliance would yield.

“Imagine being able to work for one of the top companies in the country … and drive to work in five or 10 minutes,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“More and more companies … are going to take jobs to where the people are.”